Q. As far as you know, are most asylum seekers arriving by in Australia boat genuine refugees or are most of them not genuine refugees?

Total

Vote Labor

Vote Lib/Nat

Vote Greens

Vote other

Jan 2014

Most of them are genuine refugees

32%

37%

26%

64%

27%

30%

Most of them are not genuine refugees

43%

40%

53%

16%

50%

47%

Don’t know

25%

22%

21%

20%

24%

23%

43% of respondents believe that most asylum seekers arriving by boat are not genuine refugees – 32% believe most are genuine refugees. This is a shift toward believing they are genuine since this question was asked in January last year.

Those more likely to think most are not genuine refugees were Liberal/National voters (53%) and aged 55+ (59%). Those more likely to think most are genuine refugees were Greens voters (64%), Labor voters (37%) and those with university education (42%).